Currently, there are 8.2 billion people on Mother Earth, and every single one of them, myself included, is insane. This is primarily because of the human ego, the inherent darkness contained in everyone. There are varying degrees of insanity, with people like the Dali Lama ranking at the lowest end of the scale and murderous despots ranking at the highest end. I don’t think many would disagree that Hitler’s genocide, killing six million Jews, was insane or that Pol Pot’s Cambodian genocide, killing approximately two million people and singling out those who wore glasses because they were perceived as elitist, was insane. The major problem comes when those who are insane manage to mesmerize their followers into mass insanity and take over governments. This generally occurs because the despot promises to be a savior and fix everything, while those with a sense of desperation are made more gullible by their fear. Those who crave power also know that feeding the fear of the masses is one of the best ways to manipulate them into compliance.
Historically, we also cannot discount the insanity of global colonization, in which the arrogance of the ego perceived that it was okay to wipe out cultures and enslave people. Interestingly, it is considered wrong for individuals to steal or kill, but too often, governments don’t think it applies to them. Not all genocides take place within just a few months or years. Sometimes, it becomes seething over time, such as European colonists decimating the Native American population from approximately fifty million before colonization to as low as 5.2 million currently. Included in this is the slave trade, where millions of Africans were kidnapped and shipped in horrible conditions to the Americas, primarily the United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil. The underlying principle of all this is greed. NOTE: The basic definition of “wrong” is any thought, intent, or action to cause harm to someone. Any excuse for causing deliberate harm to anyone is irrelevant.
Individually, we like to think that we are above all that. We deny our mental illness and think that just because we didn’t end up in a mental hospital or on psychotropic medications, we are not insane. However, it is essential to consider that many of those who have ended up in psychiatric treatment are far less insane than those who condemn them for their “insanity.” For instance, the healthiest member of society is the one who recognizes that there is a problem, identifies their part in it, and seeks to do their part in solving the problem including asking for the help they need. What is insane is to deny there is a problem, blame others, and refuse to accept your part while you degrade and demean those who seek help as being weak. Only the ego degrades, demeans, or attempts to dehumanize another person, and remember that the ego is our internal darkness, or as the 12-step programs say, “EGO stands for Edging God Out.” What is most important to the ego is to call the shots, to be the one in charge, the one who is always right, and in some cases, it is willing to go to very evil lengths to accomplish that. It would rather “prove” that it is right than have anyone, including you, be happy. Listening to our egos and trying to prove our point is often at the cost of our happiness.
Humanity has always been insane because we all have the darkness of the ego within us, and we always have. The bottom line is that we all want what we want when we want it but seldom consider the consequences of our wanting. Never underestimate the lust for more or the temptations of arrogance. Consider, for instance, that there have been thousands of wars throughout history, and all fought for greed and false pride (arrogance). The dictionary defines greed as “An excessive desire for material gain, power, status, or other things that feed selfishness.” What is essential to consider about this definition is that greed feeds selfishness. The Bible states in Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Some delete “love” from the quote and say money is the root of all evil. Money is not the root of evil but is often used to feed it. Some Biblical scholars note that “love” in this context denotes “eros,” the root word of erotica. So, it would then mean that the lust for money is the root of all evil, and what is the lust for money? Greed and greed feeds selfishness. Therefore, selfishness is the root of all evil. Where does selfishness come from? EGO, “Edging God Out,” –Edging Love out.
Part of the insanity of humanity is the use of religion. It is not religion itself that is insane because religion is a tool to help us develop our spirituality. It is no more a source of evil than money, but it can be used for evil. The more ego gets into any religion or denomination of that religion, the less it is about developing spirituality, and the more it becomes a weapon in service of the ego. Weaponized religion has brought about many of the wars experienced by mankind. Consider the Crusades. This was a war between Christianity and Islam in which both sought to conquer and exploit the territories of the other. How much more arrogant can you get than invading a territory and demanding that all its residents convert to your religion while you pillage their resources? How can that possibly be a spiritual practice? What purpose could any religion have to demand compliance while pillaging the resources of others? The answer is greed and selfishness which are a clear indication that the ego rather than spirituality is ruling the religion. In the modern world, this is demonstrated by oligarchy and nationalism supported by religion. The dictionary defines oligarchy as “a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.” The more those who are ultra-wealthy gain control, the less control is given to the people, and the more human rights are infringed upon by those who have the ultimate selfishness. In the film Forrest Gump, there is a line when Forrest becomes wealthy: "After a while, it’s just for show.” If it is just for show, no one really needs it, and the bragging rights of having wealth and control are to appease the illusion that overconsumption can alleviate a failing sense of self-worth.
What many don’t understand is that greed is an addiction. Those who have greed in excess and have the opportunities to take advantage often end up with more wealth than they could ever use, sometimes more than they could use in a thousand lifetimes. So, they don’t really need all the excess wealth they have. Therefore, it’s “just for show,” and if it is “just for show,” we have to include the other part of the definition of greed, “an excessive desire for status.” Why would anyone need to show off their wealth or seek positions of status or authority over others if it were not to feed a starving ego? Because they have an insatiable ego, they seek affirmation of worth (status) through ownership and control. Let me be clear that I don’t think there is anything wrong with being wealthy. Not all wealthy people are selfish. Many pay their fair share and contribute great amounts to charity. They may live in luxury, but many very wealthy people who would never be perceived as wealthy never show off their wealth and are generally the most charitable. They are private about their charity because, if they have to advertise it, it is not charity but publicity for the sake of the ego. When people hoard wealth and refuse to consider the other side of humanity while flaunting their wealth, that is an addiction to greed. Yet, to clarify, one does not have to be wealthy to be greedy and selfish. Many in poverty are just as addicted to greed, but in a different way.
Now, let's examine what drives greed and selfishness. It has been said that the only error that humanity needs to correct is the fear of lack. That does not necessarily mean a lack of resources but can also mean a lack of self-esteem or being unsure of one’s actual value as a human being. Why else would anyone addictively seek status? Those who are confident have nothing to prove. Confident people may achieve great things that may or may not be seen in the public eye, but they do not need to laud themselves or seek status by demanding to be seen. If we lack confidence to the point of addiction, we may go to great lengths to prove our worthiness, such as the overaccumulation of wealth or self-aggrandizement. The underbelly of self-aggrandizement is the dehumanization of others by demeaning and degrading individuals or groups of people. Here, the ego can say to itself, “See, I’m not as bad as them! They are disgusting, less than human, not as deserving as me.” The dehumanization of others has nothing to do with wealth or status. It is solely about the ego’s need to create a false identity of worth, and it can be perpetrated by anyone regardless of financial or social status. If I am poor or less fortunate than others, my ego may seek to find an enemy, anyone I can assume to be beneath me. This could be anyone I can put down and accuse of taking what little I have, my resources, imagined resources, or perceived human worth. The less worthy we feel, the greater our need to dehumanize others so we can think we are above them. That might include either publicly or privately demeaning other races, migrants, LGBTQIA+ people, women, or anyone else we can find to judge and criticize. Something the ultra-wealthy love is when the lower classes or minorities fight among themselves because this takes the focus off the actual theft of resources perpetrated by the ultra-wealthy. There is an old tactic called, “Let’s you and them fight.” It works like this: if person number one can trick persons two and three into fighting with each other, then person one can slip behind them while they are fighting and steal them both blind, thereby feeding the consumption addiction of person number one.
One of the primary problems with addiction is that it often harms others more than it does the addict and addicts will go to extensive lengths to feed the (ego) addiction.
It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. That certainly applies to any addiction, whether it is the addiction to over-accumulation or the addiction to substances or behaviors that offer pleasure as a substitute for happiness and feelings of self-worth. Any time we are attempting to fill an internal emptiness from any external source, the likelihood of addiction is extreme. Pleasure gives a temporary respite from the internal sense of lack. Still, pleasure is short-lived, and the addict must pour into the void over and over, fitting the definition of insanity. The addict hopes that some external source will someday overcome their feelings of lack, but it can never happen because the void must be filled from the bottom up and inside out. What we need is not pleasure or euphoria. What we need is confidence that our value is equal to all. In other words, self-love.
If one looks closely, one can see how addiction applies to specific religions or denominations of religions, various groups, and governments. This is because the ego can be either individual or collective. It can assume the identity of a religion, political party, social level, gender, sexual orientation, or anything else. Those who need to feed their ego by dehumanizing others find ways as a collective to do things like passing laws that either overtly or covertly attack those who they consider to be “worth-less” than themselves. They may feel satisfied or justified when doing this, but it remains an attempt to fill an inner void from an external source. Those groups who are attacked fight back because they don’t want to accept dehumanization or the imposed consequences created by unjust laws that are created not based on any factual problem but on the fears and the lust for control of the ego-collective in authority.
Then, there is the problem of indoctrinated bigotry, even in those who are among the defined oppressed. When we assume that those in authority who dehumanize us are right, we internalize the dehumanization and convert it into self-loathing for not living up to the expectations of the ego-collective. When children grow up in a society that demeans who they are, they almost always internalize the dehumanization of the ego-collective. This accounts for the higher suicide rate among oppressed youth such as LGBTQIA+. Some in dehumanized groups may even try to identify with the ego-collective. Some of those in certain race groups become racist against their race. Women dislike themselves for not looking like a Barbie Doll, or believe they have to be subservient to men as the “weaker gender.” Some LGBTQIA+ people strive strenuously to fit themselves into the mold of the ego-collective instead of loving themselves as they are. They may also espouse hatred of LGBTQIA+ people, knowing that they have it within themselves. Gay people may be racist, anti-gay, or anti-trans while not recognizing the oxymoron of their internal dialogue. In contrast, other “minorities” may have bigotry toward them. It is possible for women to be misogynists and for minority races to be racist against their own or engage in counter-racism. The ego has various games to play within the human psyche, especially regarding our need to establish a sense of value.
Understanding that the ego uses our beliefs to root itself is essential. The ego defends the ingrained or indoctrinated belief and accepts any “evidence” that “proves it” while denying any evidence to disprove it. It does not matter whether there is ample evidence that the belief is erroneous; the ego will still defend it. This means it embeds itself in denial and refuses to accept that there could be another way of looking at things. If it cannot “prove” the belief, it will resort to attack. The more it is questioned, leading to the identification of any flaws in the belief, the more it will resort to anger and retaliation. Try to convince a Christian to become a Wiccan or even question their beliefs. Try to convince a Muslim to become a Hindu. How easy do you think that would be? The ego defends what we believe regardless of what it is, while it discounts and demeans the beliefs of others. This makes it very difficult to gain awareness or see the truth, and the most important thing to understand is that no belief can ever be the truth, even if it is a belief about the truth. All religions have truth within them and various tools for developing spirituality, but all religions are also flawed to some extent. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “I came to the conclusion long ago that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and while I hold by my own religion, I should hold other religions as dear as Hinduism.” Still, in the service of the ego, religion fails to comply with the tools to develop spirituality and denies the glimmers of truth within the religion. Herein lies hypocrisy. The ego does not care what the truth is. It only cares about preserving the belief. Whether someone else is trying to convince us of a different understanding or whether we recognize the truth and are trying to reinforce it within ourselves, the ego will fight back. If we fight the ego, we end up with a war between our ears, which often occurs before we can experience full awareness.
Healing begins with compassion for the totality of ourselves, the good, bad, and ugly, even the ego. The ego is our internal trickster, constantly trying to stir things up because it believes it must constantly fight for recognition and existence. The ego thrives on conflict. It believes that without manufactured identity, it will die and does not recognize its self-destructiveness or admit to the harm that it causes itself or others. After all, the ego perceives that “they are the problem, not us.” Of course, the truth is that regardless of the life we live while we are here, whether we are among those who are attempting to be less insane or those who are awash in their insanity without realizing it, we will all die. The Buddhist concept is impermanence. Nothing ever remains the same. In time, any contribution we have made to humanity will still exist, but humanity’s memory of it will fade. The ego has an immense fear of death (the ultimate lack) and, therefore, frantically attempts to embed itself in individuals and society. Unfortunately for the ego, the key to release from insanity is the death of the ego. No one may become completely free of ego while we live unless we are someone like Jesus or Buddha, but we can find greater relief. Everyone admits that they are going to die, but few actually accept it. However, it is when we fully accept that we will die someday, somehow, in some way, that we become free to live without the fear of death. This acceptance of impermanence presents a newfound freedom of spirit. The ego may still exist in us, but the simple acceptance of our impermanence diminishes its power over us.
To diminish the ego’s power over us, we must first recognize that it exists and that the real problem to be solved is not out there; it is in here, within our thinking and our susceptibility to the ego. We have to admit that we have an ego before we can deal with the influences of the ego. It tricks us in many ways while trying to hide within individuals and ego-collectives. When we recognize it in ourselves or others, the key is not to fight it but to ignore it by pulling our attention to the present moment, to love, compassion, understanding, and awareness. This includes the awareness that there is no differentiation of value between one human being or another. That awareness must especially include the fact that no earthly measure can define our worth, whether it is accumulating wealth and status or engaging in dehumanizing others. There is no amount of putting others down that can lift us up. The ego must constantly repeat conflict to justify itself and claim a false sense of worth, doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results. There is no amount of anything that can purchase our sense of worth, whether that is a spending compulsion, a gambling addiction, an addiction to the accumulation of wealth, or any other form of consumption. Simply put, it is impossible to buy your self-esteem. No amount of external consumption can fill an internal void. No attempt to diminish the worth of others through bullying, abuse, or putdowns can reinforce our self-worth. If it did, one episode of bullying others would be enough to serve a lifetime. It needs never to be repeated, but it doesn’t work, so the ego tries it again and again until we realize that the real problem is not in them; it’s in us. We must first learn to fill our void of self-worth from the inside. The hole in our hearts is love-shaped. Only love can fill it, and until we can fill it with complete self-love, no other effort will matter.
We cannot develop sanity by trying to change others. We have no power over them, anyway. Regardless of the circumstances, everyone makes their own choices. We must understand that the only person we can change is ourselves, and attempting to change others is an effort of the ego. However, if we change ourselves, “Be the change we wish to see in the world,” our behavior changes, and when our behavior changes, it presents a different set of choices for those who interact with us. This invites them to see us and the world differently, even if they continue to hate us or cling to erroneous beliefs. The first step to healing the world is healing ourselves, and the first step to healing ourselves is compassion for ourselves. That means self-forgiveness. It means having compassion for our mistakes and attempts to fit into the ego-collective. It means forgiving ourselves for being tricked by our egos or the egos of others. It means forgiving others and recognizing their God-given humanity. It means recognizing when the ego is talking inside our heads and immediately distracting to something else. We can say to ourselves, “That’s my ego talking.” Then, we can do something as simple as taking a few deep breaths or focusing on our surroundings. We might even mentally bless the thought or person that has upset or distracted us. The more we do this, the less control the ego will have over us and the more aware we will become. Granted, most things are easier said than done, but if you thought that simply taking your focus off ego thoughts could save humanity, would you try it?
Self-healing means embracing our authenticity and how nature made us, regardless of what those unhealed souls think about it. It means knowing that no matter who we are, what mistakes we may have made, any attempts we have used to feed the ego, or what condition we were born into, we deserve our place on this planet as much as anyone else. Those who are confident have nothing to prove. Therefore, the more healing we create within ourselves, the less we try to prove ourselves to anyone. Love me or hate me; this is who I am, the way nature made me, and I deserve to be here. Since we cannot give what we do not possess, the more we build love within ourselves, the more we are able to extend it to others.
Others will continue to feed their egos. The collective egos may even take over governments and cause significant damage in the world, but we are not in control of them. We control only our choices, and the more we choose love over fear, the less power the ego will have. Eventually, a tipping point (reference Malcomb Gladwell) will tip the world's population toward love. To tip humanity away from insanity toward love, more and more of us must choose to love ourselves and learn to ignore our egos so we can fully embrace loving our fellow citizens of humanity. World healing begins with individual healing, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” It can only begin with me. Think about it: what might happen if we each individually began to identify any malicious or selfish thought and then shifted our attention immediately toward presence, love, and compassion for ourselves and others? How sane could we become? How much could our sanity affect the lives of others? The ultimate question is, how much am I, as an individual, willing to contribute to the healing of the world by first healing myself?
I am grateful to my mentors and guides, and books like A New Earth by Eckart Tolle and A Course in Miracles.
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